New tool does 3000 regression tests for IMAGE

Beyond Y2K Inc. (650.592.3588) is selling its Regression Analysis Tool (RAT/3000) for HP 3000s, a new product to trace IMAGE calls. Steve Zink of the firm said the $3,000 product “will work with any Native Mode program, and Compatibility Mode programs can also work with the SL versions of RAT. You need not change a line of code in your program to use this trace, and it can run online or batch.”

RAT can also record and playback VPlus screens, “which also can be run in batch for your stress testing and regression testing. RAT also allows customers to age or expand IMAGE databases for date variables, along with an MPE intrinsic trace and a VPlus intrinsic trace.”

Zink said that RAT “is built to work with any program, even if you don’t have the source. If you run your program with the two XLs as follows, you can get a trace of IMAGE intrinsic calls — and it will tell you the dataset names, parameters, arguments and buffers, along with a stack marker trace of where a call originated.”

Zink provided a list of the IMAGE intrinsics traced: DBOPEN, DBCLOSE, DBFIND, DBGET, DBPUT, DBDELETE, DBUPDATE, DBLOCK and DBUNLOCK. When traced, these intrinsics display their parameters, including the buffer after DBGETS, DBPUTS, and DBUPDATES; the mode, database, dataset and other relevant parameters; the status of the call; and a stack marker trace if you want a more complete trace. This stack marker trace can be enabled or disabled, or allowed only for non-zero status returns.

The founder of the company said he was an HP employee for over 15 years, working in the MPE and MPE/XL labs on major enhancements to the MPE file system, spooler, CI, DAT, MM/Customizer and performance products. He also created the ENV files for HP 2680 printer.

Zink said that “Silicon Graphics and Hewlett-Packard have both used RAT in their application debugging. It is completely safe and provides a new dimension to debugging.” RAT’s price includes a half-day tutorial. A free 30 day trial is available from the Web site, or on CD-ROM by sending e-mail to beyondy2k@aol.com.